EASY SYRINGES SEND WRONG MESSAGE

WITHIN minutes of walking the streets of Kings Cross, Swedish drugs
campaigner MaLou Lindholm was able to obtain 10 syringes and other injecting
paraphernalia for free. The former Swedish MP said she was asked by a drug
worker if "10 needles were enough" and told to "have a nice day".

"It's just too easy ... it's very scary," Ms Lindholm told the 200 delegates
at the start of the Drug Summit 2000 in Sydney yesterday.

She said she was directed to the distribution centre on Darlinghurst Rd by a
chemist and, once at the centre, was also given swabs, cotton wool and three
spoons to heat heroin.

Ms Lindholm, speaking of the Swedish experience, warned politicians they
were "sending the wrong message" by introducing harm minimisation rather
than zero tolerance laws.

"By doing this we are giving a double message ... we are saying it's okay,"
Ms Lindholm said.

"By integrating drugs into society we are saying that drug abuse is a normal
part of society."

She said the proposed Kings Cross heroin injecting room and
Government-funded needle exchange programs would encourage addicts to keep
feeding their habit.

Ms Lindholm is one of the speakers at the Salvation Army-organised
conference held almost exactly one year after last year's historic
Government Drug Summit which voted to establish Australia's first heroin
"shooting gallery".

The summit is sponsored by preventive organisations including the Australian
Parent Movement, the Rapid Detox Centres, the Salvation Army, Fred Nile's
Festival of Light and anti-drugs campaigner Angela Wood.

The Salvation Army's Major Brian Watters said delegates at the conference
opposed "soft approaches" to the drug problem.

But the conference was labelled a "sideshow" by one of NSW's most senior
doctors.

Professor Ron Penny from St Vincent's Hospital told The Daily Telegraph many
people at the conference took an "extreme position" in the drugs debate.

"It is not an enlightened approach," Professor Penny said.